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Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1926.
The Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1926, came into force
on 1st July, 1927. The Act amends the law relating to Certification
of Deaths and the disposal of the dead. A certificate of death can
be given only by a registered Medical Practitioner in the prescribed
form and must be delivered by the Practitioner himself to the
Registrar. Other changes of importance relate to the particulars
of the cause of death, a new form of certificate is provided for the
use of Medical Practitioners, which was drawn up after consultation
between the Registrar-General and representatives of the medical
profession, in order to secure more accurate records of the causes
of death. This should be found to assist Medical Officers of Health
in compiling the Statistics for their Annual Reports.
Infant Mortality.
During 1927 the deaths of 150 infants were registered as belonging
to Battersea. The total number of births registered during
the year was 2,801 giving an infant mortality rate of 53.5 per
1,000 births, as compared with 61.6 in 1926.
It will be noted that the infant mortality-rate was considerably
lower during 1927 than in the previous year. The main cause of
the decline was a fall in the mortality from respiratory and
intestinal diseases.
The distribution of the 150 infant deaths and the infant mortality-rates
for the registration sub-districts and the Wards, are
shown in the following table:—